FilmSnobReviews

Title: Handling the Undead
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Thea Hvistendahl
Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

What It Is: A moody slow burn, subversive zombie tale showcasing three separate families having deceased members of their family coming back to life. The dead family members do not seem to respond to their names anymore and seem to only be shells of the people they once were. It is a tale of grief, loss, and the consequences of not letting go.

What We Think: Wow. Congratulations. They found a way to make zombies unbelievably boring. Subversive? Defying genre? A representation of grief after loss of a loved on?  More like dull, plot-less movie and a frustratingly predictable allegory. “Oh look at me, I’m a zombie movie that’s not like other zombie movies.” It’s truly impressive the levels of pretentious this movie is. I was actually excited. Based on a book from the writer of Let the Right One in? I was invested. Rooting for this movie. I wanted this movie to be great. Instead, I have to say, this was the worst film I saw at Sundance. It managed to have three separate story lines where I was absolutely not invested in any of the characters. When your most effective/interesting scene is a scene of animal cruelty, you have failed as a movie.

Okay, angry zombie nerd rant aside, let’s look at what the film was trying to say and dissect why it did not work. This is a film that either would’ve worked better if it was a short film or if the story exclusively focused on one family. Essentially it’s a plot of loved ones coming back from the dead and the people they left behind slowly coming to terms with the idea that even though they are back, they are truly gone. It is a neat subversion . . . If done right. The movie forgot an important aspect, though: in order to care about any of these characters and what they’re going through, you actually have to spend the time establishing characters. There was little to no character to our characters. Even with sparse dialogue, one could have actually spent time getting to know a bereaved family. Notice I said a bereaved family. Spending time getting to know three different ones in a feature length film is hard enough with dialogue, nearly impossible without. There was a certain amount of cold, impersonal distance that kept one from being able to connect with any of the cast in a meaningful way. Also, plot. It felt like there was three different families because if they focused on only one, god forbid, they’d actually have to write a plot. This is a movie where more or less nothing happens for almost two hours until the last possible second where we no longer cared. I understand wanting the film to be more of a slow burn somber film, but saving everything interesting in the movie for the last five minutes was not the way to go. Every shot in this movie is at snail’s pace and it didn’t need to be. How much of the acting in this movie was the actor remaining perfectly still and looking depressed for a 30 second shot?

This does not feel like an interesting subversive take on the zombie genre. It does not feel like an interesting deconstruction. It feels like a pretentious film student trying way too hard to be different. Like someone who hated horror and the zombie genre so much, they created something purely out of spite. Style was definitely preferred over anything with substance. You can’t just have pretty shots and expect people to be entertained or entranced.

Our Grade: D-, I hated this movie. Many reviewers probably love this film, but I did not. Words cannot express my disappointment. I think this movie was misguided and I do not recommend this movie to anyone.